CDC Cutting Funding for Epidemics in 39 Countries

A baby has her head measured by Brazilian and U.S. health workers from the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at her home in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, as part of a study on the Zika virus and the birth defect microcephaly. (Andre Penner/AP)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to scale back or slash its work to prevent epidemics and other health threats in 39 foreign countries because funding is expected to end, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In a sobering email to leaders in the CDC's global health division in the United States and overseas, the organization said it expects the funding crunch will force it to narrow activities to 10 "priority countries" starting in October 2019, the Journal reported.

The Division of Global Health Protection "will have to scale its global health security portfolio to focus efforts based on existing resources," wrote Rebecca Martin, director of the CDC's Center for Global Health, the Journal reported. "Faced with this anticipated fiscal reality, we have had to make some very difficult decisions."

The CDC currently works in 49 countries as part of its global health security initiative — an agenda funded mostly through a five-year supplemental package awarded in fiscal 2015 to respond to the Ebola epidemic.

The 10 countries where global health security activities will remain are India, Thailand, Vietnam, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Jordan and Guatemala, according to the email, the Journal reported.

But in 39 others, the CDC "will plan for the completion of its country-based programs," transitioning them to other possible funders by October 2020, according to the email. These include Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Indonesia, Haiti, and China.

Former CDC director Tom Frieden told the Journal reductions now would halt critical work and result in a loss of newly trained local experts.

"They're more likely to have outbreaks and less likely to be able to stop them themselves," he told the Journal, referring to countries that'll be affected. "We'll have to respond instead of having them respond."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to scale back or slash its work to prevent epidemics and other health threats in 39 foreign countries because funding is expected to end, the Wall Street Journal reported.